


Tales From the Road

by ArtHouse



Category: Dungeons & Dragons - All Media Types
Genre: F/F, F/M, Multi, Odissea is an international terrorist, This is mostly just extra backstory for my character, and is wanted for questioning in another three, and this is BEFORE she joins our very chaotic party, who has arrest warrants out for her in four countries
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-23
Updated: 2020-08-23
Packaged: 2021-03-06 18:13:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,853
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26073214
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ArtHouse/pseuds/ArtHouse
Summary: In a world where magic exists but has simply been hidden from the majority of humanity, the tiefling Odissea tries to find her place in the world and ends up in more than one fight along the way while she does so.





	Tales From the Road

**Author's Note:**

> Odissea is my Hexblade Warlock/Fighter multiclass in out 1970s themed campaign where magic is hidden from the majority of humanity. This is a supplementary section to her backstory that explains more how she ended up in America with her new crew. Enjoy!

“My name is gonna be Odissea now, papa,” said a young tiefling, her face surprisingly serious for such a young child. Her skin was a dusky lavender, contrasting against the pitch-black hair on her head; golden eyes seemed to glow as she peered up at her father.

Calore smiled down at his daughter as he pulled her up, resting her on his hip, “Odyssey, huh? What made you decide on that name, dear? And let me just say congratulations on figuring out your virtue name so young. I didn’t figure mine out until I was 17.”

“I wanna see everything! Priest Aetakas has been telling about other countries, and I want to go to every single one of them out there, and he told me that would be quite the odyssey, and so I said that that’s what I’d be then!” Odissea obviously expected her father to congratulate her on her amazing reasoning skills, but her father just sighed.

Calore had always tried to live by his name; warmth he had named himself, and warmth he would always try to be. At the end of the day though, he really wished that his daughter would have a less dangerous calling than becoming a priestess of Avandra. The ones who left to travel always had short lifespans; they never could keep themselves away from the fire.

“Well my darling Odissea, if you want to go explore like that, then you’re going to need to take school a bit more seriously. What was it on Wednesday? You froze Domenico’s tongue to the sidewalk?”

“He deserved it papa! He was talking about how I wasn’t actually a girl anyways, and so I got mad and did what Bisnonno taught me!” Odissea’s face was contorted into an angry frown. Her great grandpa Levistus taught her that need needed to take her vengeance when she could, and that was exactly what she was doing!

“Bisnonno doesn’t have to deal with your teachers when you use your magic against other children. How about this? I’ll talk to your mother about getting you to go to a different school if you promise to try and cause a little bit less trouble, deal?”

“I promise, papa. I’m gonna go tell everyone else about my new name if that’s okay?”

“Have fun, darling.”

As Calore watched his daughter run off towards her younger siblings, he sighed to himself. He had to talk to Valspira soon. He was sure that his wife would agree that Odissea needed to go to the priesthood, but he was still reluctant to transfer her there so soon. She was two years younger than their average recruits and learning more magic was bound to get her in more trouble.

Oh well. For right now he really needed to talk to his grandfather. Levistus may be an Infernal Lord, but that was no reason not to teach Odissea that she should use some restraint. Vengeance is all well and good, but immediate vengeance is rarely as satisfying as waiting to strike until the right moment so you don’t get caught. Habits such as these start young, and Odissea looks up to her Bisnonno so much, that the lesson would come far better from him.

* * *

Odissea swung her longsword up with her right hand, her face set into a grimice. Priest Aetakas had been smacking her around the training yard for years, but it was time for her to win for a change. Feinting a thrust with her sword, Odissea spun around, dodging past Aetakas’ strike raising her left hand towards the priest.

An explosion rung out across the training yard. Aetakas, expecting an Eldrich Blast, was flung forwards, suddenly pushed by a rush of air coming from behind him.

Odissea raised her sword towards her mentor’s throat, “Yield, Aetakas?”

“No. I don’t think so,” with these words, Aetakas vanished into thin air, appearing twenty feet to Odissea’s right, “you must always remember Odissea that an enemy isn’t truly out of the fight unless they are unconscious.”

Aetakas’s sword had rematerialized back in his hand, slamming into her own to emphasize his point.

“I will try to remember, Pontifex.”

“Good. I think your training is about at an end, Odissea. You should be ready to take your vows with the batch next week.”

“Pontifex! I am only 19; my training won’t be complete for another year.”

“You joined us a full year before all of the people who are graduating now, two years before what is normal. I think you will be just fine. Besides, you are needed in the world, and experience is always the best teacher, no matter what you think of me.”

“If you say so, Aetakas. I will do as you think best.”

“Besides, don’t think none of us noticed Levistus sneaking in to give you more fight training. You have passed the rites, and you are better in a fight than half of the staff here.”

Odissea’s cheeks flushed a dark purple. Levistus always tried to make sure she was prepared, but she hadn’t thought that any in the priesthood had noticed her great grandfather’s extra weapons instruction. She was a fighter long before Avandra granted her any magic besides what her great grandfather had gifted her with, and it was evident in how she fought. Sword in one hand and magic in the other was all that she truly knew.

“We care not that you were receiving outside instruction, but please do try and remember that helping those in need is more important than whatever lesions he taught you about betrayal and vengeance.”

“Don’t worry, Pontifex. I’ll remember to assist the oppressed with their vengeance against their oppressors and help to facilitate people into betraying their old morals in favor of my own.”

Aetakas barked out a laugh, “Keep that in mind, and you’ll do fine out there. Now come. I head that the kitchen is making gnocchi tonight.”

“Ooh! I love gnocchi!”

* * *

Odissea had her head ducked down, her hood pulled tight down around her head. The rain was falling lightly on a gloomy July night, but the heat would have been unbearable to anyone not of infernal heritage.

She had been in Berlin for a week now, and this town was a lot more interesting to her than the other places she had visited thus far. She had made it a few weeks in Spain, the UK, and Austria each before her habit of helping the oppressed had started to have some people as the wrong questions about her, and when your entire appearance was simply an illusion to hide that you aren’t actually human, questions very quickly become vivisection attempts.

Once she entered into Berlin, she couldn’t help herself in helping others. So many people here were trapped where they were, and she, as a priestess of a goddess of freedom, could not abide it.

Thus, she was standing in an alleyway, the hood of her jacket covering her illusion covered face. She was meant to meet a person here that needed assistance moving across the wall, and this alley just so happened to contain the grate that allowed access to the old subway system.

Suddenly, Odissea snapped her head up. The woman she was helping to cross was there, but there was an additional person walking with them. A change in plans this last minute was almost never a good thing.

“I thought you were going to come alone, Ingrid.” Odissea tried to keep the frustration out of her voice, but she was only partially successful.

The woman who came with Ingrid narrowed her eyes, “You’re the one who is new in town. I know the major border crossers, and you aren’t one of them. How are we supposed to trust you?”

“I never said I was a major one. I’ve only been in town a week.”

The woman seemed to consider this for a moment before replying, “Fine. Get Ingrid across safe, and then we’ll see where we go from there.”

“Sounds good. My name is Odissea.”

“Angelika. Now let’s move.”

Odissea gave one last look down the street before moving over and popping the grate up, gesturing for Angelika to go down first. The ladder down was slimy, with only small marks where Odissea had come up from being clean. The tunnel was in obvious disuse with entire sections of the wall falling off.

Odissea whispered to Ingrid as she went down, “Try and ignore the water pooling at the bottom. The sewer lines are right below this, and some of it leaks through.”

As she climbed down, Odissea pulled the grate back into place, taking the time to latch it shut, so no one would know that they had come through this route.

Pulling out a flashlight, Odissea gestured to the right, “Through here, and remember to keep to the side, some of the bricks in the center are a little bit loose.”

They continued through the tunnel in silence for a while before coming across the makeshift ladder Odissea had rigged together to climb up towards the grate on the West Berlin side of the wall.

After Ingrid was seen off, Angelika decided to speak up, “Why are you doing this? You aren’t from here. What do you gain from helping people cross over?”

Odissea stopped short before she pulled her hood up and turned around to look Angelika in the eyes, “There are people who need help, and I have the ability to help them. How could I not help people cross?”

Angelika’s eyes seemed to soften, “You and I need to talk, if that’s alright. I’d like to invite you to join Das Auslese.”

* * *

“What the fuck was that, Odissea?”

Odissea was willing to admit that the question was not without merit. She had just been forced to cast darkness in order to get away from East German guard, and Angelika had seen it happen, clear as day. Odissea’s girlfriend was willing to put up with a lot of odd things happening, but this one might have been too much.

“Look. I don’t ask a lot of questions about how you do things, okay? I ignore the fact that you literally fight these people with a sword. I ignore how there are explosions around you when you clearly didn’t have grenades on you at the start of the mission. I ignore how sometimes you seem to appear in places that you weren’t in a second before. Hell, I’ve ignored the obvious fact that I feel something on your head every time we kiss even though there isn’t anything there, but this is too much! What the fuck is going on?”

“I… I don’t know how to tell you this, Angelika”

“Please, just tell me. I need some kind of explanation. I hate to say this, but I’m not sure you can stay in Das Auslese, or that we can stay together, if you don’t tell me _something_. I want to trust you, baby, but I can’t if you don’t trust me.”

Odissea tightened her jaw. While Angelika may have founded Das Auslese to simply be a group that assisted people in border crossings, the two of them had built it together until it was a formidable resistance group against the US and USSR’s occupations in West and East Germany.

“Magic is real, and I’m not human.”

“Are you really going to just lie to me more, Odissea?”

At this question, Odissea couldn’t take it any more and simply dropped her illusion, revealing her true appearance. Angelika simply stared at her.

“I’m not lying, Angelika. Our community has done its best to keep everything secret, but magic is definitely real, and I am definitely not human.”

“What are you then? What is the name of your species?”

“I’m a tiefling. We are born when another species has a child with a demon, though there are enough of us to be a fully-fledged species. My parents are both tieflings, for instance, but all tieflings have a demon in their ancestry.”

Angelika tried to shake herself out of the fog that she was in and only partially succeeded, “You have a tail?”

“Yes. I need to cut a hole in all of my pants. It’s really quite annoying,” Odissea laughed. She was glad that Angelika decided to focus on that rather than the fact that she was the decedent of a demon. Her bisnonno is very nice to her, but she knows that most people don’t really understand why demons do what they do.

“You said another species, does that mean that there are more than tieflings and humans?”

“Oh yes. There are a lot of different species out there, and not all of them are humanoid. If you can think of them being present in mythology, then they probably exist.”

“Giants?”

“Yes.”

“Mermaids?”

“Yes, but they look more aquatic than most depictions.”

“Dragons?”

“Yep. I actually went to a dragon preserve when I was younger.”

Angelika fell back into their couch, putting her hands on her head and groaning on the way down.

“And you can do magic because you aren’t human?”

“Well, I can do some magic because I’m a tiefling, but the majority of my magic comes from the fact that I’m what’s known as a Warlock. Do you remember how I have talked before about how I am a priestess of Avandra?”

Angelika nodded, “Yeah. I still don’t really get your religion, but I remember you talking about it. She’s the goddess of change and freedom, right?”

“Among other things, yes. It is actually my association with Avandra that gives me my magical power. My goddess is giving me power to help me with helping other people. When I say that helping others is my calling, I am not saying that lightly.”

“So my girlfriend is actually not human and is a priestess of an actual goddess who she talks to and gets magic powers from. Great, great. This is fine. I am totally not freaking out right now.”

Odissea gently went to sit down next to Angelika and put her arm around her girlfriend’s shoulders, “I know it’s a lot to take in. I understand if you need me to leave for a little while to let you –“

Angelika very suddenly cut Odissea off, “You do not need to leave. I am shocked, and I am slightly upset, but I am not going to break up with you because you never told me you weren’t human when magic seems to be the best kept secret in all of existence. Is there anything else you feel you should tell me then?”

Odissea reached down into her backpack and pulled out a small box that appeared to be made out of iron. Ornately made, the box did not have any locking mechanisms that Angelika could make out, though it was certainly beautiful.

“This box used to belong to my great grandmother, Maria Verità. It is known as an Infernal Puzzle Box, and they are nearly impossible to break into if you do not already know how to open them.”

Angelika eyed the box with a new appreciation, “Why did your great grandmother have this one then? It seems like one of these would be very valuable.”

“Well Maria was a human woman, and she was a warlock of a demon named Levistus, Lord of the Fifth Plane of Hell and Infernal Patron of Vengeance and Betrayal. This is the box that she kept her original warlock agreement in.”

“Angelika shot her head up from where it had been admiring the box, “You said that tieflings are the decedents of people who have children with demons.”

“I did.”

“Is your great grandfather that demon then? Levistus, was it?”

“Yes. Bisnonno always took time away from his duties to visit us though. I’m actually his favorite granddaughter because I assist people with so much vengeance.”

Angelika was starting to feel faint at this point, “When you said descendent, I didn’t think you meant that closely descended.”

“My family is a little bit of an exception if I’m honest, but that wasn’t why I pulled out Bisnonna’s box.”

“Why did you pull out the box then?”

Odissea blushed a little bit as she answered, “I thought you might want to see photos of my siblings and parents. Also, I, uh, thought you might like to know how to open the box? No one alive knows how to besides me and Bisnonno.”

Angelika could feel her jaw starting to fall. This was too much all at once, and she was starting to feel overwhelmed with all of the information and trust that was placed in her. It seemed like Odissea was tired of keeping all of this back, and she, like a damn breaking, wanted to get everything out all at once.

“I’d love to learn, Odissea.”

“And maybe meet Bisnonno. He is in Berlin after all. There’s a lot of vengeance and betrayal going on here.”

“What the fuck? Are you serious? Meet an immortal demon lord?”

“Well yes, but he’s sure to love you. Just like the rest of my family. If you want to meet them at some point that is?”

“Yes, Odissea. I’d love to meet your family at some point. And, well, thanks for telling me all of this.”

“Of course, my love. Of course.”

Angelika suddenly got a mischievous look on her face, “So when are you going to tell Gabrielle? We’ve been seeing her for only a few months less than we’ve been dating each other.”

“Oh fuck. I still need to tell Gabrielle.”

* * *

“Someone kidnapped her, Wolfgang.”

Odissea stood, undisguised, next to a elfish man. While electric lights had been moved in and the area was cleaned up well, it was still obvious that they had set up their base in some of the underground tunnels that ran under the city.

“Who got kidnapped, Odissea? Angelika?”

Odissea turned to her second in command, “Angelika was captured. I don’t know who it was exactly, but someone needs to pay, and we need to get her back.”

“Shit. Has anyone told her boyfriend yet? Or Gabrielle?”

“Andreas is going to tell Klaus, and Gabrielle is coming here now. She doesn’t know yet. At this moment, the only people I’m willing to rule out are the Servizio Informazioni Difesa and the Direction de la Surveillance du Territoire. The Italians know that it’s easier to just work with us since I’m an Italian national, and considering that Angelika and I are dating the main French agent in the city…”

Wolfgang nodded slowly, “I can agree with both of those exclusions. Do we have anything more for a suspect list? Or a plan of action for that matter? We never put together a plan for if one of you were captured.”

“Open season. CIA, MI6, KGB. If they are in this city, then I want them out! 500 Marks for every agent with proof of death and proof of allegiance.”

“We don’t have the cash reserves to keep that up for long, Odissea.”

“We can keep it up for a couple of months, and that is more than enough time to get them paranoid and sloppy. Some one knows who kidnapped Angelika, and they are going to panic when they see our response to this. Das Auslese may be a small fish in this pond, but it is _our_ pond. If we call for the city to start throwing foreign intelligence out of the city, then people are going to start doing it.”

Just as Odissea fished saying this, the pair heard footsteps running up the tunnel from the south. They started to hide before they saw that it was simply Gabrielle coming down the path.

“You said it was urgent, mon amour?”

Odissea braced herself before uttering, “Angelika has been kidnapped. Das Auslese is going on the offensive to distract from my investigation into who has her.”

“Fuck!”

“You focus on the investigation with me. Wolfgang and Andreas can handle the assault.”

“Let’s get these fuckers, Odissea.”

“Please.”

* * *

Odissea didn’t know how they had found her. She had been careful and discrete in her approach – been motoring them for an entire week – but somehow they knew she was coming and had already set up a trap specifically for her.

She managed to catch a few in the group off guard when she fired off her first shatter, but even killing 3 of their teammates didn’t stop the rest of the Soviet team from pursuing her. She lost them a few minutes back and managed to sneak into an alleyway when they caught up to her again.

The main difference between this pursuit and the previous ones she had done with the KGB is that this team was using magic. Odissea knew that she was most likely burned. These agents were too good to give up for long even if she managed to them the slip again.

Quickly teleporting down underneath a sewer grate to lose her pursuers once again, Odissea decided that she needed to get back to base and warn her team that she needed to get out of the city.

As she finally got back into the base, her boots still wet with sewer water, the only people there were Gabrielle and Wolfgang, standing over a map.

“I’ve been burned. There’s a magical Soviet team out for my head. I need to get out of the city.”

Gabrielle immediately started to protest, “Odissea, we need you here! _I_ need you here! How are we going to find Angelika if you’re leaving the city?”

“I’m sorry, Gabrielle, but if I don’t leave, then Das Auslese itself might not survive. If I leave, then I can lead them out of the city with me. Wolfgang, mark that tunnels 3, 4, and 7 have been burned.”

Wolfgang simply stared at her in shock. They had never lost more than a single tunnel in one go before, and this magical team had found three in the course of one pursuit of Odissea, who was already very good at giving people the slip.

“Gabrielle, Odissea may have a point. We can’t afford to lose routes in those numbers, and we’re already low on funds from the Open Season. We need to get this team out of the city, and we need to get back to normal procedures.”

Odissea gave a small smile, “I’m going to keep looking for Angelika when I’m outside of the city. Now,” Odissea grabbed her backpack and slung it over her shoulder, “I need to get moving and get those agents out of the city. I love you, Gabrielle. I’ll see you as soon as I can, and call you sooner if I can.”

“I love you too, Odissea. Call me when you can, and please stay safe.”

With a final kiss, Odissea started walking down the tunnel. Berlin was her home, but sometimes you need to leave home to make sure that it’s safe. She’d be back though. Berlin was not done with her yet, and she had a girlfriend to find.


End file.
